Italy

A tale of two protests

After one year, no enthusiasm for Prodi government

Conference marks final demise of once powerful Communist Party

"Berlusconi and Prodi – two sides of the same coin"

Fight to maintain a force capable of genuine anti-capitalist struggle

From its foundation in 1991, Rifondazione Comunista (Prc) has been a point of reference and an expression of hope for the future, not just for the Italian working class but for workers throughout Europe.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi has narrowly won a confidence vote in the Italian Senate by 162 votes to 157.

Turmoil in Party of Communist Re-foundation

Left lacks coherent alternative policies

"We don’t want a militarised city; we want to decide our own future".

On Tuesday, 16 January, five thousand people demonstrated and blocked the railway station at Vicenza in north-eastern Italy.

One and half million public and private sector workers in Italy went on strike on Friday 17 November.

Six months after it narrowly defeated the right-wing government of Silvio Berlusconi, Romano Prodi’s centre-left coalition in Italy is hanging by a thread.

‘Unione’ government plans pension ‘reforms’ and job ‘deregulation’

Letter from CWI’s councillors to ‘rebel’ Senators

Now workers and ’communist’ parliamentarians must mobilise to prevent attacks from ’centre-left’

Workers’ representatives will have to fight for real change

Silvio Berlusconi, the tycoon prime minister of Italy for five years, has finally tendered his resignation.

Workers must act to block the return of the tycoon prime minister

Opposition to Berlusconi but ‘Unione’no real alternative

Text of CWI leaflet

Deal finally signed after 13 months of negotiation and 60 hours’ of strike action.

Last Friday, 25 November, a general strike against budget cuts paralysed Italy.

Big defeats for Forza Italia in regional elections

On the 30th of November in Italy there was the fifth general strike against the Berlusconi government. It stopped the country.

The Party of Silvio Berlusconi, Forza Italia, took a beating in yesterday’s European and provincial elections. It went from 25.2% in the European election of 1999 to 21% yesterday. But compared to its vote in […]

"No Bush – No war", 100,000 strong week-day protest.

“Just the tip of the iceberg”

Millions take industrial action against Berlusconi’s pension “reforms”

Workers at the main production base in Italy of “Europe’s Enron” have no sympathy for those they call the “magnificent eight” now locked up in Milan’s notorious San Vittore prison.

Over a million and a half people from all parts of Italy crowded into Rome’s Piazza San Giovanni last Saturday (6 December) to attend the ’Defend Your Future’ rally organised by Italy’s three biggest union […]

1,500,000 take to the streets on day of general strike over pensions.

On Saturday 4 October, tens of thousands of people carrying flags and banners took to the streets of Rome in protest against the Europe of bankers and bosses. The Inter-governmental meeting of EU leaders to […]

The latest venture of Italy’s right wing government onto the field of class battle is a blatant all-out attack on the whole of the working class.

It’s likely to be another ‘Hot Autumn’ for the working class in Italy this year. The ruling class plans a major attack on pensions. There will be further attempts to cut back workers’ real wages […]

The ‘SME’ case now running in the Milan courts, which includes il Presidente del Consiglio, Silvio Berlusconi, among the defendants, may never get to the stage where it sentences him to prison, as happened with […]

Following the official revelations of last month concerning the role of the "Italian intelligence services" in Iraq, the last fig leaf of Italy’s inactive participation in the invasion of Iraq has been taken away. Any […]

On 12 April, about 300 people took part in a ‘people’s march’ against the war and occupation of Iraq, in Catania, Sicily.

Half a million people demonstrated in bright Spring sunshine on the streets of Rome last Saturday, 12 April. A record-breaking peace banner in the colours of the rainbow – one kilometre long and 13 metres […]

Last week-end saw dramatic scenes of direct action in Italy to stop the movement of US military supplies in the country. One major rail convoy was forced to stop and to re-route in a number […]

Oggi i lavoratori hanno nuovamente fermato l’Italia. Gli effetti della crisi economica mondiale si fanno sentire anche in Italia,la cui economia deve affrontare anche motivi specifici di crisi. Su scala mondiale il sistema capitalistico sta […]

Even over Christmas and on New Year’s Day, there have been demonstrations of protest, with blockades, in a number of factories of the Fiat group (like Termini Imerese and Mirafiori).

The FIAT workers’ battle has taken on a European dimension. A two hour European strike of FIAT group workers has been called for 16/12, against the programme of group `restructuring’, already underway.

No ai processi politici !Verità su Genova! Libertà per tutti gli arrestati !No al governo Berlusconi!

Eye-witness report from Henry Silke, with references to the Irish links of the local fascists.

The many hundreds of thousands of Italian protesters were joined by tens of thousands of foreign participants in the European Social Forum assembly and by others, like the French CGT union, who came to Italy […]

In Naples, as everywhere else in Italy on 18 October, the general strike called by the Cgil trade union federation got support from a wide range of other organisations like Cobas, Sin.Cobas, the unemployed movement, […]

Last week’s general strike in Florence was very successful, with many factories practically empty. Local transport was on strike in the afternoon, when nearly everything stopped.